Wednesday, 22 June 2011

Beautiful Bath

There are a few locations in the country that one simply must visit at some point for the purposes of railway photography. The historic city of Bath in Somerset has to be one of them.

The city now just has one main station after the closure of Bath Green Park following the Beeching axe leaving just Bath Spa on the Great Western route. Traffic through the station is plentiful and consists of a regular supply of HST's heading from London to Bristol as well as local diesel units heading to various locations from South Wales to the South Coast. Weekdays also see a handfull of freight trains. The city is popular with charters also, and on my visit two were passing through the city- 5043 'Earl of Mount Edgcumbe' with a Vintage Trains trip to Bristol, and the Northern Bell luxury train on a run from Gobowen also to Bristol.

The most famous location in Bath is undoubtedly Sydney Gardens, where trains have run at speed right next to the park for over a century. Despite plans progressing to erect a new fence here you can currently still get up really close to the trains, making this location quite unique.

Another popular spot is just west of Bath where there is a stunning view of trains emerging from the castleated Twerton Tunnel.

There are numerous other locations one can explore in Bath, as time permits heading in either direction out of the station. My final pictures are of the returning charters to the east of the city having followed the footpath of the pleasant Kennet & Avon Canal (and yes, I have photoshopped a wire out of the final picture!).